The French spy who wrote The Planet of the Apes - BBC News BBC News The French spy who wrote The Planet of the Apes By Hugh Schofield BBC News, Paris 4 August 2014 Close share panel Image copyright Jean Loriot Before the newly released Dawn of the Planet of the Apes film, there was a long franchise going back to the first Apes movie - the 1968 classic with Charlton Heston. But before that there was the book. Today few people have heard of Pierre Boulle. He was the French author who first had the brilliant idea of humans travelling in time and stumbling on ape civilisation. It was in his 1963 novel La Planete des Singes (Planet of the Apes). But there's more. It turns out that Pierre Boulle was also the man behind another cinema great - none other than The Bridge on the River Kwai. A book on the face of it so quintessentially British - about a British colonel and his conception of duty and honour. How on earth could it have been written by a Frenchman? And how did that same Frenchman then move from wartime adventure to the world of science fiction for his second Hollywood triumph?

Pierre Boulle died in Paris in 1994, after a writing career that spanned more than 40 years and resulted in some 30 novels and collections of short stories. But it was his life before taking up the pen that shaped his literary outlook. From the mid-1930s he was a rubber planter for a British company in Malaysia. And in World War Two he served as an undercover agent for the Special Operations Executive (SOE). For The Bridge on the River Kwai he was writing of a world he knew well. Image copyright Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy "Pierre Boulle was profoundly Anglophile," says Jean Loriot, who heads the Association of Friends of Pierre Boulle. "In the Far East he worked alongside English people. He was impregnated by English culture. He admired the English greatly. And when he came to write he made many of his heroes English." The Bridge on the River Kwai was Boulle's third novel. The first two - William Conrad, and The Malay Spell - were named in deliberate homage to his two literary inspirations: Joseph Conrad and Somerset Maugham.

For this third book, Boulle wanted to explore the psychology of the ultra-correct Col Nicholson (played by Alec Guinness in the film), but also to raise questions about the relative value systems of the Japanese and British minds. The opening words are: "Maybe the unbridgeable gulf that some see separating the western and the oriental souls are nothing more than a mirage?... Maybe the need to 'save face' was, in this war, as vital, as imperative, for the British as it was for the Japanese." Much later, Boulle wrote a short autobiography called The Sources of the River Kwai in which he described his own experience in the war. In Singapore in 1941 he signed up to the Free French, and was seconded to what became known as Force 136. This was the British SOE operation in South East Asia.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption At the time, Singapore was the major British base in South East Asia At a place called The Convent, he was put through a training course in which "serious gentlemen taught us the art of blowing up a bridge, attaching explosives to the side of a ship, derailing a train, as well as that of despatching to the next world - as silently as possible - a night-time guard". After various missions in Burma and China, Boulle - now with the English covername Peter John Rule - was told to make his way by river to Hanoi, in Vichy-controlled Indochina. With help from villagers he built a raft from bamboo and floated downstream. At a place called Laichau he was spotted and brought to the local French commander. Deciding on the spur of the moment to come clean, he told the commander he was from the Free French with instructions to make contact with sympathetic Vichy officials. Unfortunately the commander was not one of them. Boulle was sentenced to forced labour for life. He spent the next two years in jail in Hanoi before escaping near the end of the war. "The experience was seminal for Boulle," says Loriot.

"When he came to Indochina he thought he was on the good side. But then a Frenchman arrested him and said, "No you are not." "It drove home a point about the relativity of good and evil, which is the theme of all his works. What is good is good only in a certain context. Not necessarily universally." The Bridge on the River Kwai is also noteworthy for having a different ending from the film. In the book, the bridge is not blown up. It survives as a monument to Col Nicholson's doggedness. It was the Americans in Hollywood who insisted on a more dramatic - and uplifting - end. Boulle did not make much of a fuss over the change to his book. He was a youngish writer, happy to get the royalties. Several years later it happened again with The Planet of the Apes. Image copyright INTERFOTO / Alamy In Boulle's original book the story is told by two honeymooners holidaying in space, who find a bottle containing a manuscript. It is by a French journalist who tells of his adventures on a planet run by monkeys, where the humans are the dumb animals.

At the end of the account, the journalist arrives back at Orly airport in Paris where he finds the staff... are apes. And there is a kicker when we discover the two honeymooners are themselves chimpanzees. The one moment the book does not contain is possibly the most memorable point of the film - the discovery at the end of the half-buried Statue of Liberty. In the film, this communicates the astounding fact that the travellers have fast-forwarded in time, and that they are back on Earth - an Earth devastated by nuclear war, in which the apes have emerged as the new dominant species. In Boulle's book, the events take place not on Earth but on a distant planet. (In fact the 2001 film remake by Tim Burton was closer to the book's plot.) "It is a big difference. In the film there is this sense of human responsibility. It is man that has led to the destruction of the planet," says Clement Pieyre, who catalogued Boulle's manuscripts at the French National Library. "But the book is more a reflection on how all civilisations are doomed to die. There has been no human fault. It is just that the return to savagery will come about anyway.

Everything perishes," he says. Boulle's work divides pretty neatly into two genres - the wartime stories and the science fiction. "I think the link between the two types is that in each of them Boulle puts his heroes in situations of discomfort and sees how they cope. He pushes them to extremes," says Pieyre. Image copyright Jean Loriot Boulle writes in simple French, and his books are made easier to read by a strong narrative flow ( generally not a strength among modern French writers). He was a scientist by training. According to Loriot, there is a "remorseless logic to his stories. In fact he wrote the concluding page first and then worked backwards to construct the way to that conclusion." After the war, Boulle had an "epiphany", according to Loriot, and dedicated the rest of his life to writing. He came to Paris, where he lived with his beloved sister and niece. Loriot is the widowed husband of Boulle's niece. When Boulle died, Loriot and his wife took possession of a trunk full of Boulle's manuscripts.

Among these is a document whose existence was revealed only this week - the original French version of Boulle's screenplay for a follow-up to the 1968 film. Such was the success of the Charlton Heston film, that Twentieth Century Fox immediately asked for a sequel. Boulle set to the task (incorporating the Statue of Liberty ending of the first film, ironically), but his script proved unusable. "By general admission Boulle was an amazingly imaginative writer, but he did not understand cinema," says Pieyre. Today Boulle is almost forgotten, even in his native France. In his lifetime he was a retiring figure, shunning the literary world. He never married. "I think part of the problem is that the French don't know how to categorise him. Some people think he's too 'Hollywood' because of the two films. But no. He was rooted in France," says Pieyre. Loriot has dedicated the last 20 years of his life perpetuating the memory of a man he loved. "On his deathbed, his last words to me and my wife were: 'I hope they will not forget me,'" Loriot says.

The man behind two of the greatest films of all time - plus so much else - certainly deserves better. Pierre Boulle; Wrote 'River Kwai,' 'Planet of the Apes' - latimes YOU ARE HERE: LAT Home → Collections Pierre Boulle; Wrote 'River Kwai,' 'Planet of the Apes' February 03, 1994 |MYRNA OLIVER | TIMES STAFF WRITER Pierre Boulle, the French author of the best-selling novels "Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Planet of the Apes," which were turned into popular films, has died in Paris. He was 81. Boulle, an engineer with no literary training who began writing in middle age, died Sunday night. The highly successful 1957 film "Bridge on the River Kwai," starring William Holden and Sir Alec Guinness, won the Academy Award for best picture in 1958 and five other Oscars, including best screenplay. Boulle accepted the writer's Oscar at the 1958 ceremony, but it was an open secret that he had not written the screenplay based on his 1952 novel.

"Everyone knew Boulle couldn't speak English, let alone write it," Hollywood historian Larry Ceplair told The Times years later. The screen version was actually written by a "Michael Wilson," a false name for the blacklisted writer Carl Foreman. In 1985, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences posthumously awarded Foreman an Oscar for the screenplay. For the Record Los Angeles Times Friday February 4, 1994 Home Edition Part A Page 24 Column 2 Metro Desk 3 inches; 76 words Type of Material: Correction Boulle obituary--An obituary in Thursday's Times on Pierre Boulle, the French author of the best-selling novel "Bridge on the River Kwai," incorrectly stated that the screenplay for the film of the same title was written only by Carl Foreman using the name Michael Wilson. The screenplay was credited to the non-English-speaking Boulle as stated, but was actually written by both Foreman and Wilson, two blacklisted screenwriters who posthumously received the Academy Award for the script in 1985. Boulle died Sunday in Paris at the age of 81.

Boulle, a native of Avignon, France, studied science and engineering at the Ecole Superieur d'Electricite, worked briefly as an engineer in France and moved to Malaya as a rubber planter. His heroism during World War II provided ample material when he turned to writing in 1949. It also won him the French Legion of Honor, the Croix de Guerre and the Medal of the Resistance. Boulle joined the French Resistance in Malaya and the French Army in what was then Indochina, becoming a secret agent known as Peter John Rule, Mauritius-born Englishman. He fought in Burma, China and Indochina before he was taken prisoner by the Japanese. He escaped in 1944 and returned to France until the end of the war. "Le Pont de la riviere Kwai," his third novel, involved Allied prisoners of the Japanese building a bridge in Burma for their captors. Boulle wrote in French, but his work was translated into English and distributed around the world.

MORE: The French spy who wrote The Planet of the Apes - Google Groups The French spy who wrote The Planet of the Apes Showing 1-1 of 1 messages The French spy who wrote The Planet of the Apes The birds that plague the Eternal City Before the newly released Dawn of the Planet of the Apes film, there was a long franchise going back to the first Apes movie - the 1968 classic with Charlton Heston. But before that there was the book. Today few people have heard of Pierre Boulle. He was the French author who first had the brilliant idea of humans travelling in time and stumbling on ape civilisation. It was in his 1963 novel La Planete des Singes (Planet of the Apes). But there's more. It turns out that Pierre Boulle was also the man behind another cinema great - none other than The Bridge on the River Kwai. A book on the face of it so quintessentially British - about a British colonel and his conception of duty and honour. How on earth could it have been written by a Frenchman?

And how did that same Frenchman then move from wartime adventure to the world of science fiction for his second Hollywood triumph? Pierre Boulle died in Paris in 1994, after a writing career that spanned more than 40 years and resulted in some 30 novels and collections of short stories. But it was his life before taking up the pen that shaped his literary outlook. From the mid-1930s he was a rubber planter for a British company in Malaysia. And in World War Two he served as an undercover agent for the Special Operations Executive (SOE). For The Bridge on the River Kwai he was writing of a world he knew well. "Pierre Boulle was profoundly Anglophile," says Jean Loriot, who heads the Association of Friends of Pierre Boulle. "In the Far East he worked alongside English people. He was impregnated by English culture. He admired the English greatly. And when he came to write he made many of his heroes English." The Bridge on the River Kwai was Boulle's third novel. The first two - William Conrad, and The Malay Spell - were named in deliberate homage to his two literary inspirations: Joseph Conrad and Somerset Maugham.

For this third book, Boulle wanted to explore the psychology of the ultra-correct Col Nicholson (played by Alec Guinness in the film), but also to raise questions about the relative value systems of the Japanese and British minds. The opening words are: "Maybe the unbridgeable gulf that some see separating the western and the oriental souls are nothing more than a mirage?... Maybe the need to 'save face' was, in this war, as vital, as imperative, for the British as it was for the Japanese." Much later, Boulle wrote a short autobiography called The Sources of the River Kwai in which he described his own experience in the war. In Singapore in 1941 he signed up to the Free French, and was seconded to what became known as Force 136. This was the British SOE operation in South East Asia.

At the time, Singapore was the major British base in South East Asia At a place called The Convent, he was put through a training course in which "serious gentlemen taught us the art of blowing up a bridge, attaching explosives to the side of a ship, derailing a train, as well as that of despatching to the next world - as silently as possible - a night-time guard". After various missions in Burma and China, Boulle - now with the English covername Peter John Rule - was told to make his way by river to Hanoi, in Vichy-controlled Indochina. With help from villagers he built a raft from bamboo and floated downstream. At a place called Laichau he was spotted and brought to the local French commander. Deciding on the spur of the moment to come clean, he told the commander he was from the Free French with instructions to make contact with sympathetic Vichy officials. Unfortunately the commander was not one of them. Boulle was sentenced to forced labour for life. He spent the next two years in jail in Hanoi before escaping near the end of the war. "The experience was seminal for Boulle," says Loriot.

"When he came to Indochina he thought he was on the good side. But then a Frenchman arrested him and said, "No you are not." "It drove home a point about the relativity of good and evil, which is the theme of all his works. What is good is good only in a certain context. Not necessarily universally." The Bridge on the River Kwai is also noteworthy for having a different ending from the film. In the book, the bridge is not blown up. It survives as a monument to Col Nicholson's doggedness. It was the Americans in Hollywood who insisted on a more dramatic - and uplifting - end. Boulle did not make much of a fuss over the change to his book. He was a youngish writer, happy to get the royalties. Several years later it happened again with The Planet of the Apes. In Boulle's original book the story is told by two honeymooners holidaying in space, who find a bottle containing a manuscript. It is by a French journalist who tells of his adventures on a planet run by monkeys, where the humans are the dumb animals. At the end of the account, the journalist arrives back at Orly airport in Paris where he finds the staff...

are apes. And there is a kicker when we discover the two honeymooners are themselves chimpanzees. The one moment the book does not contain is possibly the most memorable point of the film - the discovery at the end of the half-buried Statue of Liberty. In the film, this communicates the astounding fact that the travellers have fast-forwarded in time, and that they are back on Earth - an Earth devastated by nuclear war, in which the apes have emerged as the new dominant species. In Boulle's book, the events take place not on Earth but on a distant planet. (In fact the 2001 film remake by Tim Burton was closer to the book's plot.) "It is a big difference. In the film there is this sense of human responsibility. It is man that has led to the destruction of the planet," says Clement Pieyre, who catalogued Boulle's manuscripts at the French National Library. "But the book is more a reflection on how all civilisations are doomed to die. There has been no human fault. It is just that the return to savagery will come about anyway. Everything perishes," he says.

Boulle's work divides pretty neatly into two genres - the wartime stories and the science fiction. "I think the link between the two types is that in each of them Boulle puts his heroes in situations of discomfort and sees how they cope. He pushes them to extremes," says Pieyre. Boulle writes in simple French, and his books are made easier to read by a strong narrative flow ( generally not a strength among modern French writers). He was a scientist by training. According to Loriot, there is a "remorseless logic to his stories. In fact he wrote the concluding page first and then worked backwards to construct the way to that conclusion." After the war, Boulle had an "epiphany", according to Loriot, and dedicated the rest of his life to writing. He came to Paris, where he lived with his beloved sister and niece. Loriot is the widowed husband of Boulle's niece. When Boulle died, Loriot and his wife took possession of a trunk full of Boulle's manuscripts. Among these is a document whose existence was revealed only this week - the original French version of Boulle's screenplay for a follow-up to the 1968 film.

Such was the success of the Charlton Heston film, that Twentieth Century Fox immediately asked for a sequel. Boulle set to the task (incorporating the Statue of Liberty ending of the first film, ironically), but his script proved unusable. "By general admission Boulle was an amazingly imaginative writer, but he did not understand cinema," says Pieyre. Today Boulle is almost forgotten, even in his native France. In his lifetime he was a retiring figure, shunning the literary world. He never married. "I think part of the problem is that the French don't know how to categorise him. Some people think he's too 'Hollywood' because of the two films. But no. He was rooted in France," says Pieyre. Loriot has dedicated the last 20 years of his life perpetuating the memory of a man he loved. "On his deathbed, his last words to me and my wife were: 'I hope they will not forget me,'" Loriot says. The man behind two of the greatest films of all time - plus so much else – certainly deserves better.

Pierre Boulle, Novelist, Is Dead - Author of 'River Kwai' Was 81 - NYTimes.com Pierre Boulle, Novelist, Is Dead; Author of 'River Kwai' Was 81 By WILLIAM GRIMES Published: February 1, 1994 Pierre Boulle, the author of "The Bridge Over the River Kwai," "Planet of the Apes" and other novels and short stories, died on Sunday in Paris, The Associated Press reported. He was 81 and lived in Paris. Mr. Boulle was born in Avignon. After earning a degree in electrical engineering at the Ecole Superieure d'Electricite in Paris, he spent two years in France as an engineer before moving to Malaysia in 1938 to oversee a rubber plantation near Kuala Lumpur. In 1939, Mr. Boulle joined the French army in Indochina. After the fall of France, he fled to Singapore, where he joined the Free French and became a secret agent. Posing as an Englishman named Peter John Rule, he helped organize resistance to the Japanese in China, Burma and Indochina.

An Arranged Escape In 1943, while trying to float down the Mekong River on a raft and make his way into Hanoi, he was captured by the Vichy French and sentenced to life at hard labor. While in prison, he began keeping a diary on scraps of paper. In 1944, with an Allied victory looming, authorities at Mr. Boulle's prison in Saigon arranged for his escape. He returned briefly to his plantation, but then returned to France to begin a career as a writer. His wartime experiences led to several books, the most famous being "The Bridge Over the River Kwai" (1954), about Allied prisoners of war at a Japanese camp in Southeast Asia who are forced to build a bridge for their captors that becomes a target for Allied commandos. Last Book Was in 1992 The novel was made into the 1957 film "The Bridge on the River Kwai," directed by David Lean and starring William Holden and Sir Alec Guinness. Mr.

Boulle's other books, many of them tales of adventure or espionage that dealt with moral problems, include "William Conrad" (1952), "Face of a Hero" (1956), "The Test" (1957), "A Noble Profession" (1960) and "Ears of the Jungle" (1972). His novel "Planet of the Apes" (1963), the story of a world where talking apes have power over man, was made into a movie in 1968 starring Charlton Heston. He published two books of memoirs, "My Own River Kwai" (1967), about his wartime experiences, and "L'Ilon" (1990), about his childhood. His most recent book, "A Nous Deux, Satan," was published in France in 1992. Mr. Boulle was an officer of the Legion of Honor, and a recipient of the Croix de Guerre and the Medal of the Resistance. No immediate family members survive.

Photo: Pierre Boulle (1973) Lost in translation - Salon.com Wednesday, Aug 8, 2001 8:02 PM UTC Lost in translation "Planet of the Apes" spawns a whole new genre -- lame novelizations of movies based on good novels Topics: Books , Entertainment News Last year, I took a writing seminar at UCLA from novelist Richard Setlowe, author of “The Sexual Occupation of Japan,” who liked to regale us with his tales of dabbling in Hollywood. Setlowe told us about the time he’d sold the film rights to one of his novels, but the deal took an extraordinarily long time to close. Setlowe called his agent to see what the snafu was. “Almost everything is nailed down,” the agent said. “We’re just dickering over the novelization rights.” “The what?” Setlowe said. “The right to turn the film into a novel,” the agent said. “It’s already a novel,” Setlowe said. “Remember that’s what you’re selling — a novel.” “Oh,” the agent said. The people at the seminar cackled like a pack of hyenas.

Prose writers are a small and much-scorned band in Southern California, and we delight in anything that makes the film community look foolish. As a screenwriter would say, flash forward to today. I recently heard a radio interview with the biographer of Pierre Boulle, the French author who wrote the novel that was the basis for the “Planet of the Ape” films. The interview made me want to read the original book. I went to a large bookstore chain that begins with the letter “B,” but I couldn’t find the book in the literature section. Granted, Boulle’s novel, originally titled “Monkey Planet,” was published more than 35 years ago. However, the book is held in high enough esteem that I thought at least one copy would be in stock, especially with the recent release of the Tim Burton movie remake. I have shied away from asking the folks at “B” for assistance, ever since the time I inquired about where Emerson’s works were located and was told, “I’m not familiar with that name.

Is he a writer?” Nonetheless, I was intrigued enough about Boulle, who also wrote “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” to ask for the “Planet of the Apes” novel. The woman behind the counter punched some information into her computer. “We have it,” she said. She led me to the film section, where I found “Planet of the Apes Movie Novelization” by William T. Quick. At first I thought it was a joke. Then I realized I was looking at an entirely new literary genre: the novel based on the screenplay based on the novel. Ironically, Boulle, who originally thought the whole thing up, is given no credit on the novelization, perhaps because there is so much room taken up listing the three screenwriters for Tim Burton’s film. I also found a second “Planet of the Apes” novelization, this one aimed at “young readers,” at the bookstore. Boulle wasn’t given any mention on this book either.

However, I sense he wouldn’t want any credit, considering the novelization is filled with sentences such as “Daema kicks some serious ape butt.” A third “Planet of the Apes” book — a fictional diary of the main character — was also in the store. The book’s first sentence was, “I don’t know who’s going to read this — maybe no one.” I concur with that sentiment. And I wonder how many readers will have the perseverance to track down the original Pierre Boulle novel. Del Rey has rereleased it as a mass market paperback, but since the book doesn’t have Mark Wahlberg or the scantily clad Estella Warren on the cover, I’m not expecting it to pop up at my local bookstore anytime soon. I just hope that Boulle’s descendants held onto the rights to turn his novel into another novel and are getting a piece of the action. Given the way Hollywood churns out sequels and remakes, that may become the real bread and butter for most novelists. Joe Mullich is a writer whose work has appeared in many publications, including Los Angeles magazine, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times Syndicate.

Articles about River Kwai by Date - Page 2 - latimes ARTICLES ABOUT RIVER KWAI BY DATE - PAGE 2 TRAVEL Thailand Hopes to Rebuild WWII Rail September 8, 1996 | ASSOCIATED PRESS Thailand hopes to attract tourists and improve trade by rebuilding the notorious World War II "Death Railway" between Bangkok and Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar). The plan is still in its early stages, but Interior Ministry officials said recently that they hope Japan and the Allied nations will help finance the project. Advertisement Four-Star Films : 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' June 11, 1995 | Peter Rainer If you want to see rousing epic filmmaking at its most richly entertaining, this 1957 Academy Award winner directed by David Lean is always worth a visit, or a revisit. Alec Guinness gives a classic portrayal as the leader of captured British soldiers interned in a World War II Japanese prison camp who becomes obsessed with a bridge-building project. His adversary and, ultimately, his kindred spirit, is played by Sessue Hayakawa.

NEWS Pierre Boulle; Wrote 'River Kwai,' 'Planet of the Apes' February 3, 1994 | MYRNA OLIVER, TIMES STAFF WRITER Pierre Boulle, the French author of the best-selling novels "Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Planet of the Apes," which were turned into popular films, has died in Paris. He was 81. Boulle, an engineer with no literary training who began writing in middle age, died Sunday night. The highly successful 1957 film "Bridge on the River Kwai," starring William Holden and Sir Alec Guinness, won the Academy Award for best picture in 1958 and five other Oscars, including best screenplay. NEWS Japanese Veteran Apologizes to Victim of River Kwai Torture March 28, 1993 | Associated Press On the banks of the River Kwai, below the famous bridge built by slaves and POWs, a former Japanese Army interpreter apologized Friday to the former British prisoner he helped interrogate 50 years ago.

Nagase Takashi and Eric Lomax, two graying 75-year-olds, shook hands and wept in the courtyard of a museum dedicated to the "Death Railway," whose construction cost the lives of 116,000 Asian and Allied prisoners. NEWS At the River Kwai, a Long-Delayed Apology March 27, 1993 | From Associated Press On the banks of the River Kwai, below the famous bridge built by slaves and POWs, a former Japanese army interpreter apologized Friday to the former British prisoner he helped interrogate during torture 50 years ago. Takashi Nagase and Eric Lomax, two graying 75-year-olds, shook hands and wept in the courtyard of a museum dedicated to the "Death Railway," whose construction cost the lives of thousands of Asian and Allied prisoners. ENTERTAINMENT A 'Bridge' Rebuilt : Restoration of David Lean's 'River Kwai' Raises the Issue of How Good Is Good Enough November 21, 1992 | JEFFREY WELLS, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES; Wells is a Los Angeles-based free-lance writer. Film restoration and preservation is a growing faith in Hollywood.

Almost everyone is a believer, for commercial if not for altruistic reasons, especially since the successful, high-profile restorations of "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Spartacus." And yet some distributors, it appears, aren't as devout as some restoration specialists would like. As Robert A. Harris, who supervised the "Lawrence" and "Spartacus" restorations, puts it, "Some are willing to settle for good enough. NEWS Memories Are Big Business at Bridge on the River Kwai June 9, 1991 | SHEILA TEFFT, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR Throughout Southeast Asia, a flood of Japanese trade and aid is starting to submerge memories of wartime atrocities. But here, amid sugar cane plantations and jungle-covered hills in western Thailand, memories are big business. Just north of this agricultural center of 35,000 people, the bridge over the River Kwai stands as a grim reminder of the last great war. NEWS Sir David Lean, Director of 'Lawrence of Arabia,' Dies : Movies: The Oscar winner's sweeping epics include 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' and 'Dr.

Zhivago.' April 17, 1991 | HENRY CHU, TIMES STAFF WRITER Sir David Lean, the Oscar-winning director whose grandiose epics over six decades often made him a bigger star than many of his actors, died Tuesday in London. His lawyer, Tony Reeves, issued a statement about his death but it did not disclose the cause. Lean was 83 and had been hospitalized in Paris in January after being stricken on the set of what proved his final film, "Nostromo," based on the Joseph Conrad novel. Work on the film had since been suspended. NEWS Mass Grave Near the Bridge on the River Kwai Stirs Haunting Memories : World War II: Though the book and the movie were largely contrived, the discovery in Thailand is all too real. February 24, 1991 | DAVID LAZARUS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Takashi Nagase, 72, remembers very well what happened during the building of the bridge on the River Kwai in the jungle here. The discovery of a mass grave last fall made his memories all the more excruciating.

As an intelligence officer with the Imperial Japanese Army helping oversee construction of the "Death Railway" from Bangkok to Rangoon, Nagase witnessed numerous acts of cruelty against Allied and Asian prisoners. "The history (of atrocities) cannot be erased," he says. NEWS Mass Grave Found Near Site of WWII 'Bridge on River Kwai' November 19, 1990 | From Times Wire Services A mass grave has been discovered near the site where tens of thousands of Asian slave workers and Allied prisoners died building a railroad for the Japanese during World War II. The remains of up to several hundred people have been unearthed since Tuesday, when the excavation began. It is being carried out by the Pothipawana Songkroh Foundation, a Buddhist group that wants to provide proper burials.

Planet of the Apes – from a French novel to a movie franchise | The Vintage Toy Advertiser The Vintage Toy Advertiser Suffering ink-stained fingers and occasional staple wounds to bring you wonderful images of retro toy ads and pop culture paperworks Menu Leave a reply Where man once stood supreme – now rule the apes Planet of the Apes – before it was a film franchise, before it was a TV series, before it was a comic book – was originally imagined as a 1963 novel by French writer Pierre Boulle. Boulle had already seen one of his novels The Bridge on the River Kwai turned into a successful film. Now it was the turn of his latest novel to receive film treatment: La Planète des Singes (Monkey Planet), the story of a planet ruled by apes, who think, talk and act in many ways like human beings. Monkey Planet became the 1968 film sensation Planet of the Apes. What followed after was an incredible journey that brought us Planet of the Apes-related films, a TV series, animated series, a remake, a reboot, comics, books, toys, video games and merchandise sold all over the world.

This post takes a brief look at some of the UK book and comic art that came out in 1975/6 featuring stories from the films and the TV series. Planet of the Apes novel by Pierre Boulle Where it all began… my rather battered 1975 Penguin UK edition of Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. Originally published 1963. 1975 Penguin UK edition of Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. Planet of the Apes and Dracula Lives UK Marvel. Issue #94. 1976. Demons of the Psychedrome. Edited by Archie Goodwin, written by Doug Moench, art by Tom Sutton and Mike Ploog. UK. Planet of the Apes and Dracula Lives. #94. 1976. Edited by Archie Goodwin, written by Doug Moench, art by Tom Sutton and Like Ploog. Page from Demons of the Psychedrome. Page from Demons of the Psychedrome. Planet of the Apes The Island out of Time UK Marvel. Issue #33. 1975. The Island out of Time.

Story by Doug Moench, art by Rico Rival. UK. Marvel. Planet of the Apes The Island out of Time. #33. 1975. Story by Doug Moench. Art by Rico Rival. Page from Planet of the Apes The Island out of Time. Beneath the Planet of the Apes comic book adaption 1975 Marvel UK advert and movie still promoting the comic adaption of the film Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Beneath the Planet of the Apes. 1975. Movie still Beneath the Planet of the Apes. 1975. The Planet of the Apes class structure checklist. 1975 The Planet of the Apes class structure checklist. 1975. Planet of the Apes Authorised Edition UK. Brown Watson. 1975. No writer or artist credits are given in this UK annual-style hardback book containing POTA comic strips and features on the TV series. Cover of Planet of the Apes Authorised Edition. Brown Watson. 1975. Back cover of Planet of the Apes Authorised Edition. Brown Watson. 1975.

Inside content of Planet of the Apes Authorised Edition. Brown Watson. 1975. Inside content of Planet of the Apes Authorised Edition. Brown Watson. 1975. To date, and if you include the novel, POTA has been with us for more than fifty years! For me, the original film is a classic that will always rank high. I also like the original novel. What do you like or dislike about POTA? Does anyone collect the toys (I’m straightaway thinking Mego) or did you play with the toys as kids?

Question: Who wrote the novels 'The Planet Of The Apes' and 'Bridge On The River Kwai'?
Answer: PIERRE BOULLE